Dripping Disco Discs and Other Infamous Baseball Memorabilia

It’s been more than two decades since “Disco Demolition Night,” but you can see a remnant of that infamous baseball promotion at Alhambra High School.

A melted copy of “Shake Your Groove Thing,” by Peaches & Herb, is one of several items on exhibit in the school library through May 26, courtesy of the Monrovia-based Baseball Reliquary, an offbeat historical society (see photo).

“Shake Your Groove Thing” was one of thousands of records brought to Comiskey Park in Chicago on July 12, 1979, by disco-hating fans. The records were thrown into a bonfire in center field between games of a doubleheader, whereupon a riot ensued and the field was torn up so badly that the second game was never played.

The Reliquary, which likes to poke fun at the nation’s obsession with memorabilia, is also showing such alleged treasures as “a hot dog partially eaten” by Babe Ruth, hair curlers worn by pitcher Dock Ellis (before he was prohibited from wearing them on the field) as well as “an example of what can happen when a neurotic border collie takes possession of a valuable baseball.”

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WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT: If Disney has shown a lack of direction operating the Anaheim Angels, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Disney’s 1994 movie “Angels in the Outfield” was supposed to take place in Anaheim Stadium, but most of the baseball shots were filmed in Oakland.

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HONESTY IN ADVERTISING? Phyllis Lily saw a real estate ad that inadvertently substituted an unfortunate word for “chunk” (see accompanying).

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DON’T FILL ‘ER UP! If you think gasoline is expensive at nearly $2 per gallon, check out this list, which was passed along by Jack Murphy:

* Coca Cola, 12 oz. for 42 cents ($4.48 per gallon)

* Diet Snapple, 16 oz. for $1.29 ($10.32 a gallon)

* Gatorade, 20 oz. for $1.59 ($10.17 a gallon)

* STP brake fluid, 12 oz. for $3.15 ($33.60 a gallon)

* Vick’s Nyquil, 6 oz. for $8.35 ($178.13 a gallon)

* Whiteout liquid, .7 oz. for $1.39 ($254.17 a gallon)

And, finally:

* Evian water 9 oz. for $1.49 ($ 21.19 a gallon)

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WE’LL LET IT GO THIS TIME: “At St. Robert Bellarmine church in Burbank, parishioners regularly attending the 7 a.m. Mass on Sundays could set their watches by the promptness of the priests,” writes Gene Walsh.

“April 2, the first Sunday of daylight savings, was different. Seven minutes after seven, an ‘eternity’ for some Catholics, the beloved Pastor, Monseigneur Patrick Riley. finally appeared.”

The priest explained: “We had a parish event Saturday night that got me back to the rectory very late and very tired and I forgot to set my clock. . . . But as the saying goes, ‘With every bad wind there comes some good,’ and this ‘good’ is I will forgo my homily.”

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The mention here of unusual museums brought a note from Glenn Glazer of UCLA, who said: “There is a large collection of corkscrews and cork-pullers at the CIA headquarters in Napa Valley. Oh, and by the way, this CIA is the Culinary Institute of America, which explains why these are corkscrews and not thumbscrews.”

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com